Inheritance Tax Manual

Reverter to settlor: in lifetime

Under IHTA84/S53 (3) tax shall not be chargeable under IHTA84/S52 if the interest comes to an end during the settlor’s life and on the same occasion the property in which the interest subsisted reverts to the settlor.

The settlor must be living at the time the property reverts.

Where the interest in possession arose on or after 22 March 2006, S53(3) will only be relevant where it is a disabled person’s interest (IHTM42805) or a transitional serial interest (IHTM16060).

The property need not revert to the settlor absolutely - the exemption applies if the settlor takes an interest in possession, if:

the settlor became beneficially entitled to the interest before 22 March 2006, or

the settlor became beneficially entitled to the interest on or after 22 March 2006 and it is a disabled person’s interest or a transitional serial interest (IHTM16061).

As in death cases (IHTM16121) the relief is given if the settlor’s spouse or civil partner (IHTM11032), or where the settlor has died less than two years earlier, the settlor’s widow, widower or surviving civil partner becomes beneficially entitled to the settled property, and is domiciled in the United Kingdom.

This relief does not apply if the settlor, spouse or civil partner [or, where relevant, the widow, widower or surviving civil partner] has acquired a reversion in the property for a consideration in money or money’s worth, or where the relief under IHTA84/S53 (3) or IHTA84/S53 (4) depends upon a reversion having been transferred into a settlement on or after 10 March 1981.

The termination of an interest qualifying for this relief from the IHTA84/S52 charge would otherwise be a potentially exempt transfer. If it were immediately chargeable under IHTA84/S52 it would be going to a non-interest in possession or non-qualifying interest in possession settlement and could not ‘revert’, on that event, to the settlor.

Pre-owned assets and reverter-to-settlor trusts

The reverter-to settlor exemptions in S53(3) and 53(4) will not apply where a person who is beneficially entitled to an interest in possession has made an election under the pre-owned assets (POA) legislation in Schedule 15 Finance Act 204 that the POA income tax charge should not apply in connection with their interest (IHTM16121).